WOD: 04/26/19

EMOTM for 40 minutes:

1: Power Clean, 3 reps

2: Front Squat, 3 reps

3: Jerk, 3 reps

4: Rest

WHAT IS FITNESS?

By Greg Glassman

Integration

Every regimen, every routine contains within its structure a blueprint for its deficiency. If you only work your weight training at low reps you will not develop the localized muscular endurance that you might have otherwise. If you work high reps exclusively you will not build the same strength or power that you would have at low reps. There are advantages and disadvantages to working out slowly or quickly, with high weights or low weights, completing “cardio” before or after, etc.

For the fitness that we are pursuing, every parameter within your control needs to be modulated to broaden the stimulus as much as possible. Your body will only respond to an unaccustomed stressor; routine is the enemy of progress and broad adaptation. Do not subscribe to high reps or low reps or long rests or short rests but strive for variance.

So then, what are we to do? Work on becoming a better weightlifter, stronger-better gymnast and faster rower, runner, swimmer, cyclist is the answer. There are an infinite number of regimens that will deliver the goods.

Generally, we have found that three days on and one day off allow for a maximum sustainability at maximum intensities. One of our favorite workout patterns is to warm up and then perform 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 reps of a fundamental lift at a moderately comfortable pace followed by a 10-minute circuit of gymnastics elements at a blistering pace and finally finish with 2 to 10 minutes of high-intensity metabolic conditioning. There is nothing sacred in this pattern. The magic is in the movements not the routine. Be creative.

Another favorite is to blend elements of gymnastics and weightlifting in couplets that combine to a dramatic metabolic challenge. An example would be to perform 5 reps of a moderately heavy back squat followed immediately by a set of max-reps pull-ups repeated 3 to 5 times.

On other occasions we will take five or six elements balanced between weightlifting, metabolic conditioning and gymnastics and combine them in a single circuit that we blow through three times without a break.

We can create routines like this forever. In fact, our CrossFit.com archives contain thousands of daily workouts consciously mixed and varied in this manner. Perusing them will give you an idea of how we mix and modulate our key elements.

We have not mentioned here our penchant for jumping, kettlebells, odd-object lifting and obstacle-course work. The recurring theme of functionality and variety clearly suggests the need and validity for their inclusion though.

Article borrowed from https://journal.crossfit.com/article/what-is-fitness

Finally, strive to blur distinctions between “cardio” and strength training. Nature has no regard for this distinction or any other, including our 10 physical adaptations. We will use weights and plyometrics training to elicit a metabolic response and sprinting to improve strength.

WOD: 04/25/19

“When Helen met Kelly”
20 minute AMRAP of:
400m Run
21 KB Swings, 53/35-lbs.
12 Pull-ups
400m Run
30 Box Jumps, 24”/20”
30 Wall-balls, 20/14-lbs.

WHAT IS FITNESS?

By Greg Glassman

A Theoretical Hierarchy of Development

A theoretical hierarchy exists for the development of an athlete (Figure 3). It starts with nutrition and moves to metabolic conditioning, gymnastics, weightlifting and finally sport. This hierarchy largely reflects foundational dependence, skill, and to some degree, time ordering of development. The logical flow is from molecular foundations to cardiovascular sufficiency, body control, external object control, and ultimately mastery and application. This model has greatest utility in analyzing athletes’ shortcomings or difficulties. We do not deliberately order these components, but nature will. If you have a deficiency at any level of “the pyramid,” the components above will suffer.

Figure 3: Theoretical Hierarchy of Development

Article and image borrowed from https://journal.crossfit.com/article/what-is-fitness

WOD: 04/24/19

Strict Press 5-5-5-3-3-3-1-1-1 reps

For time:
2000m Row

WHAT IS FITNESS?

By Greg Glassman

Nutrition

Nutrition plays a critical role in your fitness. Proper nutrition can amplify or diminish the effect of your training efforts. Effective nutrition is moderate in protein, carbohydrate and fat. Forget about the fad high-carbohydrate, low-fat and low-protein diet. Balanced macronutrient and healthy nutrition looks more like 40 percent carbohydrate, 30 percent protein and 30 percent fat. Dr. Barry Sears’ Zone Diet still offers the greatest precision, efficacy and health benefit of any clearly defined protocol. The Zone Diet does an adequate job of jointly managing issues of blood glucose control, proper macronutrient proportion and caloric restriction whether your concern is athletic performance, disease prevention and longevity, or body composition. We recommend that everyone read Dr. Sears' book “Enter the Zone.” We will cover nutrition in great detail in an upcoming issue of the CrossFit Journal.

Sport

Sport plays a wonderful role in fitness. Sport is the application of fitness in a fantastic atmosphere of competition and mastery. Training efforts typically include relatively predictable repetitive movements and provide limited opportunity for the essential combination of our 10 general physical skills. It is, after all, the combined expression, or application, of the 10 general skills that is our motivation for their development in the first place. Sports and games like soccer, martial arts, baseball and basketball in contrast to our training workouts have more varied and less predictable movements. But where sports develop and require all 10 general skills simultaneously, they do so slowly compared to our strength-and-conditioning regimen. Sport is better, in our view, at expression and testing of skills than it is at developing these same skills. Both expression and development are crucial to our fitness. Sport in many respects more closely mimics the demands of nature than does our training. We encourage and expect our athletes to engage in regular sports efforts in addition to all of their strength-and-conditioning work.

Article borrowed from https://journal.crossfit.com/article/what-is-fitness

Invasive Plant Removal Saturday May 18th

Sometimes we PUSH and sometimes we PULL! 

Can you lend a hand on Saturday, May 18th to improve the Mill Race natural area, neighboring the box?  There are two opportunities on May 18th.  The first opportunity is from 9am-12pm and that time will be dedicated to removing evasive weeds.  In the afternoon, from 1-5pm volunteers will be placing a bark strip in the area.  

Our members have a long history of coming together and pitching to help out,  be that bringing awareness to issue, raising funds for family, or improving our community.  Can we count on you to show up for CrossFit Train to help out Saturday, May 18th?

It would be great if we could send a crew to help out.  When the Mill Race is well kept, there is less of chance of Highway 99 flooding.  When the Millrace floods, it cut us off from accessing our daily WODs, and that would suck.  Did you notice how the Mill Race did not flood this year?  In 2012, it did.  It didn’t this year because there has been more of an effort to keep the Mill Race maintained. 

Right now, SAVE THE DATE!  We will talk more details soon. 

Rebecka Weinsteiger has been wodding at Crossfit Train since July 2013 and still loves it.  You can find her at 6am usually and on the weekends. 

WOD: 04/23/19

Front Rack Lunge
5 sets of 10 Steps

10 minute AMRAP of:
10 Goblet Hold Step-overs, 53/35-lbs. To 24”/20”
100 Single-unders

WOD: 04/22/19

“Wood Chipper”
For time:
Run 1000m
80 Sit-ups
60 Push-ups
40 Toes to Bar
20 Handstand Push-ups

WHAT IS FITNESS?

By Greg Glassman

Weightlifting

“Weightlifting” as opposed to “weight lifting” or “weight training,” refers to the Olympic sport, which includes the clean and jerk and the snatch. Weightlifting, as it is often referred to, develops strength (especially in the hips), speed and power like no other training modality. It is little known that successful weightlifting requires substantial flexibility. Olympic weightlifters are as flexible as any athletes.

The benefits of weightlifting do not end with strength, speed, power and flexibility. The clean and jerk and the snatch both develop coordination, agility, accuracy and balance and to no small degree. Both of these lifts are as nuanced and challenging as any movement in all of sport. Moderate competency in the Olympic lifts confers added prowess to any sport.

The Olympic lifts are based on the deadlift, clean, squat and jerk. These movements are the starting point for any serious weight-training program. In fact, they should serve as the core of your resistance training throughout your life.

Why the deadlift, clean, squat and jerk? Because these movements elicit a profound neuroendocrine response; that is, they alter you hormonally and neurologically. The changes that occur through these movements are essential to athletic development. Most of the development that occurs as a result of exercise is systemic and a direct result of hormonal and neurological changes.

Curls, lateral raises, leg extensions, leg curls, flyes and other bodybuilding movements have no place in a serious strength-and-conditioning program primarily because they have a blunted neuroendocrine response. A distinctive feature of these relatively worthless movements is that they have no functional analog in everyday life and they work only one joint at a time. Compare this to the deadlift, clean, squat and jerk, which are functional and multi-joint movements.

Start your weightlifting career with the deadlift, clean, squat and jerk then introduce the clean and jerk and snatch. Much of the best weight-training material on the Internet is found on powerlifting sites. Powerlifting is the sport of three lifts: the bench press, squat and deadlift. Powerlifting is a superb start to a lifting program followed later by the more dynamic clean and the jerk and finally the clean and jerk and the snatch.

The movements that we are recommending are very demanding and very athletic. As a result, they have kept athletes interested and intrigued where the typical fare offered in most gyms (bodybuilding movements) typically bores athletes to distraction. Weightlifting is sport; weight training is not.

Throwing

Our program includes not only weightlifting and powerlifting but also throwing work with medicine balls. The medicine-ball work we favor provides both physical training and general movement practice. We are huge fans of the Dynamax medicine ball and associated throwing exercises. The medicine-ball drills add another potent stimulus for strength, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance and accuracy.

There is a medicine ball game known as Hoover-Ball. It is played with an 8-foot volleyball net and scored like tennis. This game burns three times more calories than tennis and is great fun.

Article borrowed from https://journal.crossfit.com/article/what-is-fitness

WOD: 04/21/19

"Macho Mile"
4 Rounds:
400 Meter Run
3 Rounds of “Macho Man” (135/95)

1 Round of "Macho Man":
3 Power Cleans + 3 Front Squats + 3 Push Jerks

Announcement:

No Class this Saturday (4/20)

Instead come watch the Iron Beaver Spring Open Weightlifting Competition!

Announcement:

No Class this Saturday (4/20)

Instead come watch the Iron Beaver Spring Open Weightlifting Competition!

The CrossFit Handshake

by Rebecka Weinsteiger

Do you remember when you first found Crossfit Train? Was it your first Crossfit experience? It was like walking into a different world.  It is not a globo gym, it not like a 24 hour fitness place, and it isn’t a “boot camp” circuit place.  It is something totally different.  After the first class there is more individualized on-ramping that occurs to support the Crossfit newbie in learning the basic movements, but there still is a non-prescribed journey that occurs as your find your place in the Crossfit Train Family. 

Having been around awhile I wanted to share some pro-tips and lessons learned. 

1.       The Crossfit Handshake: the term has been used on and off over my tenure it is a key part of the Crossfit community culture.  It is the welcome you extend to anyone you have not met yet.  I remember the first Crossfitter to reach out to me, during a Hip/Quad all stretch during warm-up, she said “You are going to like it here, it isn’t like anything else.” She was right. I challenge you to introduce yourself to someone new to you this week. The stronger and more connected our Crossfit Family is the more community benefits you gain, like feeling supported or challenged.  My favorite part about the Crossfit community is how is inspires me to show up for not only myself but for the community too.

2.       Deload: The more your Crossfit the stronger you get.  The stronger you get the more you set sights on movements and weights that in the past may have seemed impossible.  The more you push yourself the more you need to cycle in recovery. Deloading is the process by which you intentionally program lower weights, reps or scale movements to allow for recovery.  It is after a programmed deload week that elite athletes can often hit a Personal Record (PR).  Our Crossfit programming provides a constantly varied workouts.  A deload week could occur naturally, think work travel or family sickness.  But if it doesn’t occur naturally and you have been hitting the box hard day after day, listen to your body.  If you are feeling beat up, and recovery is taking longer than normal, that is a good indicator that you should plan a lighter week.  Do the WOD, but take the weights at 60% of what you would do on a normal week.  Talk to your coach about how you should scale your reps, so you can manage an active recovery day.

3.       Set goals:  Set goals for the month, for the year.  Get inspired by the goals on the white board.  Some of my favorite goals to set are those that are incremental.  For example right now I could probably do 3 strict pull-ups.  If I set a goal to do 4 by the end of the month, that is a manageable goal.  In order to hit that goal, I might stay after class and do 5 sets of 2 pull-ups a couple times a week.  By the end of the month, I will retest. If I hit my goal, then I will go for 5 the following month.  If not, I will try for 4 again.  Another goal might be a “goat goal.” A goat is something you suck at and you hate doing, but if you figured it out you would be awesome.   For a lot of folks, is double-unders fall in that category.  A great way to work on that tough task is to set a timed goal for 100 dus.  Test at the beginning of the month and the end of the month and program extra work before the WOD starts or after it ends.  Double under work is a great warm up.  The first time I did this I finished in just under 4 minutes and after a month of practice I got it down to just under 2 minutes.  It is fun to find someone to do this with for accountability and let’s be honest competition.  For the year why not try to get a score on the Leaderboard?

Rebecka Weinsteiger has been wodding at Crossfit Train since July 2013 and still loves it.  You can find her at 6am usually and on the weekends. 

Check out this VERY old photo from when we first moved into our new location! WOW!

WOD: 04/19/19

On the 2:00 x 6 Sets:
Set #1 - 3 Deadlifts
Set #2 - 1 Deadlift
Set #3 - 3 Deadlifts
Set #4 - 1 Deadlift
Set #5 - 3 Deadlifts
Set #6 - 1 Deadlift

5 rounds for time of:
9 deadlifts
5 squat cleans
3 thrusters

Men: 135 lb.
Women: 95 lb.

No Class this Saturday (4/20)

Instead come watch the Iron Beaver Spring Open Weightlifting Competition!

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Dodgeball Tournament Fundraiser:
North Albany Community Church mission trip to Honduras through Living Water, an organization that builds wells for clean drinking water in remote villages.

Date & Time: 
April 20th, 2019,
Games start at 10 AM

Event Address: 
Boys & Girls Club of Albany

Cost: 
Middle School: $90, High School: $120, Adult: $150

Register:
https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLSe6fUzyYihWa2ikzZ…/viewform

WOD: 04/18/19

"Tip Toe"

For Time:
200 Meter Run, 21 TTB, 21 Burpees
200 Meter Run, 18 TTB, 18 Burpees
200 Meter Run, 15 TTB, 15 Burpees
200 Meter Run, 12 TTB, 12 Burpees
200 Meter Run, 9 TTB, 9 Burpees
200 Meter Run, 6 TTB, 6 Burpees
200 Meter Run, 3 TTB, 3 Burpees

WHAT IS FITNESS?

By Greg Glassman

Gymnastics

Our use of the term “gymnastics” not only includes the traditional competitive sport that we have seen on TV but all activities like climbing, yoga, calisthenics and dance, where the aim is body control. It is within this realm of activities that we can develop extraordinary strength (especially upper body and trunk), flexibility, coordination, balance, agility and accuracy. In fact, the traditional gymnast has no peer in terms of development of these skills.

CrossFit uses short parallel bars, mats, still rings, pull-up and dip bars, and a climbing rope to implement our gymnastics training. The starting place for gymnastic competency lies with the well-known calisthenic movements: pull-ups, push-ups, dips and rope climbs. These movements need to form the core of your upper-body strength work. Set goals for achieving benchmarks such as 20, 25 and 30 pull-ups; 50, 75 and 100 push-ups; 20, 30, 40 and 50 dips; 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 consecutive trips up the rope without any use of the feet or legs.

At 15 pull-ups and dips each, it is time to start working regularly on a muscle-up. The muscle-up is moving from a hanging position below the rings to a supported position, arms extended, above the rings. It is a combination movement containing both a pull-up and a dip. Far from a contrivance, the muscle-up is hugely functional. With a muscle-up, you will be able to surmount any object on which you can get a finger hold—if you can touch it, you can get up on it. The value here for survival, police, firefighter and military use is impossible to overstate. Pull-ups and dips are the key to developing the muscle-up.

While developing your upper-body strength with the pull-ups, push-ups, dips and rope climbs, a large measure of balance and accuracy can be developed through mastering the handstand. Start with a headstand against the wall if you need to. Once reasonably comfortable with the inverted position of the headstand, you can practice kicking up to the handstand again against a wall. Later take the handstand to the short parallel bars or parallettes without the benefit of the wall. After you can hold a handstand for several minutes without benefit of the wall or a spotter, it is time to develop a pirouette. A pirouette is lifting one arm and turning on the supporting arm 90 degrees to regain the handstand, then repeating this with alternate arms until you have turned 180 degrees. This skill needs to be practiced until it can be done with little chance of falling from the handstand. Work in intervals of 90 degrees as benchmarks of your growth—90, 180, 270, 360, 450, 540, 630 and finally 720 degrees.

Walking on the hands is another fantastic tool for developing both the handstand and balance and accuracy. A football field or sidewalk is an excellent place to practice and measure your progress. You want to be able to walk 100 yards in the handstand without falling.

Competency in the handstand readies the athlete for handstand presses. There is a family of presses that range from relatively easy ones that any beginning gymnast can perform to ones so difficult that only the best gymnasts competing at national levels can perform. Their hierarchy of difficulty is bent arm/bent body (hip)/bent leg; straight arm/bent body/bent leg; straight arm/bent body/straight leg; bent arm/straight body/straight leg; and finally the monster: straight arm/straight body/straight leg. It is not unusual to take 10 years to get these five presses!

The trunk flexion work in gymnastics is beyond anything you will see anywhere else. Even the beginning gymnastics trunk movements cripple bodybuilders, weightlifters and martial artists. The basic sit-up and L-hold are the staples. The L-hold is nothing more than holding your trunk straight while supported by locked arms with hands on a bench, the floor or parallel bars; the hips are kept at 90 degrees with legs straight out in front of you. You want to work toward a three-minute hold in benchmark increments of 30 seconds — 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 seconds. When you can hold an L for three minutes, all your old ab work will be silly easy.

We recommend Bob Anderson’s "Stretching." This is a simple, no-nonsense approach to flexibility. The science of stretching is weakly developed and many athletes like gymnasts who demonstrate great flexibility receive no formal instruction. Just do it. Generally, you want to stretch in a warm-up to establish safe, effective range of motion for the ensuing activity and stretch during cool down to improve flexibility.

There is a lot of material to work with here. We highly recommend an adult gymnastics program if there is one in your area. Our friends at www.drillsandskills.com have enough material to keep you busy for years. This is among our favorite fitness sites.

Every workout should contain regular gymnastic/calisthenic movements that you have mastered and other elements under development. Much of the rudiments of gymnastics comes only with great effort and frustration—that is acceptable. The return is unprecedented and the most frustrating elements are most beneficial—long before you have developed even a modicum of competency.

Article borrowed from https://journal.crossfit.com/article/what-is-fitness

Alisha Carlson | FindYourTHRIVE
fitness + nutrition + mindset coaching
 www.alishacarlson.com

After years of struggling with food and body image myself I decided to submerge myself in learning. In 2011 I started my journey towards becoming a lifestyle coach. With two kids under 4, I went back to school to get my degree in exercise science and nutrition. After graduating I went on to become a certified nutrition coach. Since then I’ve had the joy of working with both men and women (mostly women) to create a truly healthy and balanced lifestyle that just sort of ‘fits’ in with the rest of their life. We take a backward approach and work from the inside out.

Nutrition can often feel like a part time job or one more thing you have to stress or worry about. This was the exact way I looked at nutrition for years. I bounced between two extremes: I’d either spend countless hours micromanaging every bite of food I put into my mouth or I was like screw it and ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted it.

As you can imagine neither of those approaches contributed to my overall health and often left me feeling like I was totally failing at this whole fitness thing. It seemed like this was the way it was supposed to go. Terms like “diet starts Monday” or “gotta be good” are normal in the health and fitness realm, and they became regular thoughts in my head.

The big lightbulb moment for me was when I realized I was trying to play by the rules and still wasn’t getting the results I wanted. I tried cutting out entire food groups, tracking macros, out exercising my bad diet, and none seemed to work long term.

That was when I knew there had to be another way. Eating shouldn’t feel like a job and it eating healthy shouldn’t require so much brain power.

It was around this time, I started exploring habit based nutrition. With this simple and fresh approach to nutrition you can reach your health + fitness goals without counting calories or cutting out your favorite foods. Slowly you start to replace some of your bad habits around food with better ones.

Through this slower, more intentional process you will build more confidence in your body and yourself. You learn how to make empowered decisions around food and your body with mindfulness. You can finally create the healthy lifestyle you want without all the stress, guilt, or shame around food.

By taking a non-diet approach to nutrition coaching we are able to work on your mindset first and foremost. Your mind is the place you make all your decisions from, it only makes sense we would start there. Creating a healthy mindset around your body, food, and exercise is the foundation that will ultimately allow you to reach your goals in a sustainable way without losing your sanity.

I’m here as a resource on all things nutrition and mindset related. Feel free to reach out anytime. You can connect with me on Instagram @alishacarlson_ or click here to learn more.

WOD: 04/17/19

Push Press 5-5-3-3-3-1-1 reps

21-15-9 reps for time of:
DB Push Press, Right Arm
Box Jump Overs, 24”/20”
DB Push Press, Left Arm
Box Jump Overs, 24”/20”

*50/35-lb. DB.